Meeting 1 September 2004
Paper RA3.2: Research Agendas Public and Stakeholder Engagement Exercise
1. Progress has been made with the public and stakeholder engagement exercise with a contractor having been selected to work with the Commission in running this project. The core group and secretariat will be meeting with the Contractor on 2nd September for an initial briefing session.
2. The aims of the research agendas group discussion on 1st September will therefore be:
· To update members on the progress with this work and plans for the exercise.
3. This paper provides background information and raises the key questions for the basis of this discussion.
4. A competitive tender process was run to select a company to run the public and stakeholder engagement exercise for the Commission. The successful contractor was chosen from a total of six companies who were invited to bid after a period of evaluation by Matthew Freeman, Sue Mayer and Helen Browning plus secretariat and DTI staff.
5. The Contractor’s plans for this exercise are summarised in the following diagram:
6. We have committed to their proposed methods but some of the detail is still to be finalised. Therefore there are a number of issues that still need to be decided upon.
7. The locations suggested above were for costing purposes but it may be possible to change these, after discussion with the Contractor. Are members comfortable with the locations above?
8. East Anglia/Cambridgeshire seems a sensible option for the stakeholders group as it is close to a number of academic institutions and has surrounding farmland from which stakeholders for all 3 groups could be selected.
9. There is also a strong rationale for the Bristol/Cardiff + Inverness choice for the public group as it allows inclusion of 2 of the Devolved Administrations and Bristol is easily accessible from Cardiff and London.
10. In choosing locations, several issues should be considered including:
11. Participants will be selected from a range of socio-economic groups from the locations chosen. Care will be taken to choose participants who are in no way involved in the area of our work. The contractor will advise on this, but are there any specific recruitment criteria that members would like to see included? For example, we may want to ensure participants are drawn from both urban and rural communities?
12. There are also issues over retention of participants and potential problems of having too many/too few participants in stages 2 and 3.
13. The aim is to reach people who may not have a high-level representational or decision-making role, but who are affected by decisions made about research agendas either in the research they conduct or the information that is available to them to carry out their work. It has been decided that the 3 groups for this exercise will be a) scientists, b) land managers, and c) field staff and advisers from e.g. nature conservation agencies. However, the specific composition of these groups has yet to be decided. For each group the 2 main unresolved issues are:
14. It has been agreed that this group will not cover very high-level decision makers such as Institute Directors and their deputies. Remaining possibilities include junior scientists (post-grad or post-doctoral), experienced group leaders etc. It should be noted that the group size is 6-8ppl and it will be important to ensure a group that is able to work comfortably together.
15. This covers a range of different types of farmers, foresters and other land managers. It should be noted that all varieties of land managers may not be available in/near the chosen location.
B2.2.3 Field Staff
16. The aim was to have field staff for nature conservation and other agencies who have to communicate science in the advice they give to farmers. This now needs to be better defined. For example, farm business advisors, crop consultants or levy body staff might also be appropriate.
17. The contractors wish to understand in more detail the aims of the project and the sorts of issues and topics the Commission want to see covered. They would also like to discuss how this will be broken down for each stage of the exercise and outcomes expected at each of these stages. Although the specifics will be decided at a later date, it would be useful for members to consider what they feel are the main issues that they would like to see raised to ensure the basic design of the exercise meets these needs.
C1 - Aims and outcomes at each stage
18. A section from the specification for this project is appended at Annex A and outlines the aims of each stage of both the public and stakeholder exercise. Do members have any further additions and/or clarifications to this?
19. What are the overall key issues members would like to be covered through the public and stakeholder engagement exercise? Some issues and questions have been identified at previous Research Agendas meetings which may provide some ideas (see below).
20. A number of cross-cutting issues were identified which the group agreed should be addressed throughout the workstream:
21. A number of general questions to be raised in the public and stakeholder engagement exercise were also suggested:
22. There are a number of general aims we may wish to bring to the Contractor’s attention at this point, although again these can be finalised later. For example, Anna Bradley’s point from the last Commission Meeting about ensuring questions are asked in a ‘positive way’ (e.g. what should be done? as well as what shouldn’t be done?) and ensuring questions are not leading.
23. The core group will give an oral briefing to the Contractor at the meeting on 2nd September, and the secretariat will provide the papers produced thus far in this project. Are there any other specific papers/background material that members would like to send to the Contractor? (for example the House of Lords Science And Society report, Defra’s recent Science Forward Look consultation).
24. The agenda for the meeting with the Contractor is appended at Annex B. Are there any additional questions/issues that members would like to be raised at this meeting?
The purpose of this will be to identify the issues that are important to the public before they are given any detailed information on the topic. This will help frame the Commission’s work at an early stage. The aims will include:
Stage 2
The purpose of this will be to further clarify the issues and questions the Commission will address in their project. The aim will be:
At this stage the Commission will want to discuss the emerging conclusions and recommendations with the public group. The aim will be to:
· ensure the Commission’s final recommendations remain relevant to the public’s interests and concerns and give the public the opportunity to understand how their contribution has influenced the project.
The purpose of this is to help frame some of the issues the Commission will address at an early stage of their project. Aims include:
The purpose will be to help the Commission get an appreciation for the different tensions and trade-offs that occur when trying to establish research agendas. Aims include to:
Towards the end of the project, the Commission would like to discuss their emerging conclusions with the interest groups. The aim is:
ANNEX B – Agenda for AEBC meeting with Contractor on 2nd September
Attendees:
Sue Mayer Georgie Maynard
Phil Dale Anna Pierce
Paul van Heyningen
Tonima Saha
1. Introductions
2. Agree overall approach
§ Approach for Stage 1, 2 & 3
§ Outcomes at each Stage
3. Agree broad topic coverage
4. Recruitment specification:
§ Do the AEBC have any further requirements on the recruitment specification outlined in the proposal?
§ Are there any individuals Opinion Leader should avoid from recruiting – both in terms of stakeholders and the general public?
5. Locations
§ Of groups and workshops for both the stakeholder and public consultations
6. Timings
§ Revised timings for stage one
§ Set dates for all three stages
7. Background briefing on research agendas
§ AEBC to brief Opinion Leader on background to project
§ And provide Opinion Leader with any further relevant background material
8. Agree next steps
9. AOB
